After two thrilling draws, Australia defeated Ireland 2.6.15 (45) to 1.6.6 (30) in the deciding Test in Fremantle on 19th April 2006. It was the first series win to Australia in 4 years after Ireland had won in 03, 04 and 05.

As described by the Irish national broadcaster, RTE, this year's under-17 series has been a "super advertisement for International Rules football" with the Irish and Australian lads fighting out two draws in 4 days. Ireland's ability to find the net has kept them in it despite Australia's greater number of "overs". But in other less positive news Brisbane's Irish recruit has begun to feel the pull of home, and the seniors International Rules series looks like being scaled back.

As we reported in Footy in the Cayman Islands, Australian Football is now periodically played on the island, and in 2006 the compromise rules game combing Gaelic and Australian Football was successfully introduced. The following is a match report of the St Patrick’s Day International Rules clash between the Australians and the Irish at the rugby club at South Sound, supplied by Matthew Borthwick.

Last weekend the 2004 and 2005 All Star Ladies Gaelic football teams of Ireland travelled to Singapore, where hosted by the Singapore Lions Gaelic football club they played an exhibition game and ran schools coaching clinics. They also met with officials of the AFL/Women’s AFL and agreed to an inaugural International Rules Series between Australia and Ireland to occur soon after the men’s series there this October. Two Tests will be played - one at Parnell Park (the GAA’s second ground in Dublin after Croke Park) on October 31st and the other to be in either Cork or Galway on 4th November. Both will be under lights and televised at least within Ireland.

On two sides of the world over the past fortnight, some significant Aussie Rules and GAA clubs competed against each other in International Rules. In Gaelic football-playing and Gaelic-speaking Gweedore in Donegal, north-western Ireland, the West London Wildcats Aussie Rules football club, the biggest of the BARFL clubs, played CLG Ghaoth Dobhair, one of the best Gaelic Football clubs in all Ireland. Meanwhile far from the cool mists of Donegal in a steamy hot Sydney a 12 team International Rules tournament was played out by 6 Sydney AFL clubs and 6 Sydney GAA clubs.

Photos added 15/03/06

The hybrid game came to Auckland on Sunday 5th March 2006 when representative teams from the Auckland AFL and Auckland GAA clashed at the Gaelic grounds at Seddon Fields, Point Chevalier. Gaelic football in NZ focuses on a half dozen clubs in Auckland and a few clubs in Wellington; Australian Rules also has its Kiwi stronghold in Auckland with Auckland winning the recent Provincial Championships. Auckland AFL went into their first game of International Rules with confidence fresh from their national victory, but as Rob Malone of the Auckland AFL reports, the skills of the Gaelic lads with the round ball saw the first game of this kind go their way.

Former Dublin Gaelic footballer and Melbourne Demons Australian football legend and Brownlow medallist, Jim Stynes, has spoken out about plans by the GAA and the AFL to put an end to the drafting of Irish teens by AFL clubs.

AFL and GAA chiefs met in Melbourne last week to discuss terms for continuation of the International Rules series, with calls in the Irish media to scrap the series due to what has been labelled 'thuggery' on the part of the Australians. An agreement between the two leagues will see much harsher penalties for on-field violence in future, plus possible changes to the way AFL clubs can recruit young Irishmen.

The GAA community in Ireland, a far from small slice of the Irish population, continues to be abuzz with debate about the International Rules Series, months after the losses to Australia in Perth and Melbourne. A high level meeting between the GAA and the AFL is scheduled for January. This article highlights some of the issues, plus Gaelic football's own embryonic international expansion.

With games now having been played in over 25 cities across Ireland, Australia, England, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Canada and the USA - it seems International Rules has come late to the place which tries everything - California.